1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shading device that shades users from the sun and the wind, the device being installed within building openings such as balconies, decks, and verandahs.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Many people like to live in apartments and condominiums, especially as they enter their retirement years or simply as a second home. No lawns to mow, roofs to fix or many of the other major maintenance headaches that come with single family house ownership. One of the features of condominium life is the fact that many, if not most units come with a balcony allowing occupants to be able to sit on the balcony and enjoy the outdoors without the need to exit the unit. Such balconies are particularly enjoyable on waterfront condominium units.
While such balconies are nice, oftentimes the balcony occupants experience sunshine that is uncomfortable. The sun, bearing down on the occupants can be quite hot and can cause sunburn without adequate skin protection. Blowing wind can also have discomforting effects upon balcony dwellers as can rain. Such discomforts are not limited to balcony occupants but also affect people on verandahs and open air porches.
Many people attempt to counter such adverse conditions by putting up a barrier to shield the occupants. One such barrier is an umbrella. The umbrella is installed and positioned so as to block the sun from shining down on the occupants, thereby providing a shady environment. While relatively simple and effective against both sun and rain, the umbrella does little to shield occupants against wind. In fact, many umbrellas must be taken down when the wind becomes sufficiently strong or risk a failure of the umbrella mounting, a failure that can be quite dangerous, especially if the umbrella is mounted near the edge on an upper floor of a high-rise unit. Additionally, the umbrella is often insufficient in size to be able to provide shading for the entire area under enjoyment. In many situations, such as relatively deep and low ceiling balconies, the umbrella may not be effective at all, especially when attempting to shade against the sun that is low in the sky as the sun tends to be in the mornings, evenings, and winter months.
On the other extreme of shading systems are structural enclosures that are built onto the balcony, deck, or verandah. Such systems, which are not to be confused with sun rooms, tend to be more popular in the northern climates where thermal control of the open space is another consideration in the winter months, are framed structures that have translucent panes made from glass, Plexiglas, etc., held within the frames. The panes are tinted for sun shading with some of the panes being slidable to allow opening and closing of the panes. By being a solid barrier, such devices provide complete abatement against wind and rain when the panes are in a closed position. While effective, such units are very costly to install and maintain, are essentially permanent, and take away from the open air feeling that the occupants go onto the balcony for. Additionally, many condominium associations do not permit these types of structures to be installed in the building.
A middle ground shading system uses a thin flexible sheet of material, such as wicker or a mesh material, which is installed between the floor and the ceiling of the opening to be protected. Such systems, which are stored as a roll, may use several rolls for a given opening. These systems, which are relatively easy to install and remove and are not of a permanent nature, offer sun, wind, and rain shielding for substantially the entire opening, if desired. However, such systems tend to be relatively flimsy so that a relatively strong wind or even a gust can cause such systems to fail, such failures often being fatal to the device. Additionally, such systems tend to lack a sufficient adjustment system so that at best, each roll is loosely fit within its opening. This loose fit results in the wicker or mesh sagging so that when the wind acts upon the device, an unpleasant fluttering noise created by the wicker or mesh occurs.
What is needed is a shading system that can be installed within a building's opening, including on a balcony, a deck, a verandah, etc., that shades occupants from the sun, wind, and rain, and that addresses the above stated shortcomings currently found in the art. Specifically, such a shading system must be easy to install into and remove from the building opening, preferably without the need for specialized tools. Such a shading system must be able to shade as much of the area under consideration as desired even in deep balcony configurations with or without low ceilings and against most conditions including low lying sun positions. Such a shading system must not be considered a permanent structural addition to the building within which the system is being installed so as to not run afoul of any restrictive covenants that may be present or the need to obtain a building permit to install the device. Such a shading system must leave the occupants using the balcony, deck, verandah, etc., with the feeling that they are still outside of the building itself. Such a shading system must be able to withstand strong sustained winds and gusts without fear of catastrophic failure and must be adjustable so as to be tight within the opening so as to prevent the shading system from fluttering in the wind.